2006-10-10

the first mistake

The incoming coalition chose to follow tradition and have a new Speaker of the Riksdag elected from the majority. Perfectly legitimate and hardly surprising but still a mistake.

Leaving aside the fact that outgoing speaker Björn von Sydow was widely popular and did a good job as far as anyone can tell the fact remains that this position is really above party politics. The new government has made a point of changing routines for all sorts of appointments in the state. Merits and person should count, party book should not and the process should be open. So, what a great opportunity the Alliance missed here. By agreeing generously to keep a successful speaker from the Social Democrats they would have sent the signal that merits matter. More chances will come but they really blew this one.